More than 7200 students participated in SciFest

What is SciFest? SciFest is a series of one day science fairs for second-level students which take place in: Schools 16 Regional venues - 14 Institutes of Technology, DCU and St Mary’s College Derry Dublin (National final) is 3060 projects were exhibited at SciFest

3 Winners at the SciFest national final represent Ireland at the:  Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in America in May.  Christopher Carragher, Our Lady’s School, Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, overall winner of SciFest 2014, competed at Intel ISEF 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  Christopher was awarded second place in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Category and also had an asteroid named after him SciFest International  International Environment and Sustainability Project Olympiad (INESPO) in Amsterdam in May.  Ellen Fitzgerald, Aoife Dolan and Niamh Nyhan, Sacred Heart S.S., Clonakilty, Co. Cork won the INESPO Award at SciFest 2014 and represented Ireland at INESPO 2015 in Amsterdam  Ellen, Aoife and Niamh won a first place gold medal award  Berlin Long Night of Science in June  This award was won in 2014 by Rachel and Shannon Ní Dhonnachadha, St Vincent’s Secondary School, Dundalk who travelled to Berlin in June 2015 Could this be you in 2016?

4 SciFest is an exciting way for you to:  Investigate a topic that really interests you  Research and solve a real world problem  Showcase your science, maths or technology project  Talk to experts from academia and industry about your discoveries  Improve your problem solving, computer, presentation, and research skills  Work with others and make new friends  Compete for more than €20,000 in prizes  See real scientists in action  Visit a college’s laboratories and view the facilities  Learn about the courses available in the college  Enhance your CV Why enter SciFest? SciFest is your topic, your project, your achievement.

Who can enter SciFest? Age Categories Junior: 1 st Year and 2 nd Year Intermediate: 3 rd Year and 4 th Year Senior: 5 th Year and 6 th Year Project Type Individual or Group - (Max. 3 students per group – all group members must be in attendance at the exhibition) Project Categories Physical Sciences Life Sciences Technology SciFest is open to all second-level students. There is no entry fee. Don’t be left behind. Get involved today. 5

6 easy steps to a successful project State Problem Look around, ask questions, identify a problem, state a hypothesis Research Gather as much information about the topic as possible Investigate Design and carry out experiments to test the hypothesis; collect data Analyse Analyse the data, discuss the findings Conclude Come up with a possible solution to the original problem Present findings at SciFest Present 6 Entry to SciFest is free. It’s hard work but worth it.

A completed project must contain 2.SUMMARY (included in Report Book) This is a short description of what your project is about. It should be no more than two typed pages in length. 1.PROJECT REPORT BOOK Title Page Introduction Background Research Experimental Methods Results Conclusions and Recommendations Acknowledgements Appendices References 3.VISUAL DISPLAY See the SciFest website for lots of useful information Don’t be left behind. Get involved today.

Dates to Reminders Closing date for receipt of entries to 2016 is Friday 11 March Dates of events are posted on the website as they become available – see & Contacts 8 Boston Scientific are sponsoring an award at each of the 15 regional 2016 venues ‘The Boston Scientific Medical Devices Award’ 2016 regional science fairs will take place in each of the 14 Institutes of Technology, St Mary’s College, Derry and also in DCU in Dublin (New regional venue for 2016) Check out the SciFest website todaywww.scifest.ie Watch the video Top awards at SciFest 2016 include an all-expenses-paid trip to the USA.